Wednesday, November 9, 2016

History: The Year is 1896

Heavier-than-Air Flight Is Proven Impossible -- Professor Langley's flying machine crashes into the Potomac. I talk about the courage to fail.

Food Storage: A Birdseye View -- A brief history of Clarence Birdseye.

Journey to the Center of the Earth... in a Balloon -- An expedition to the North Pole in a balloon goes terribly wrong. It is easy to criticize but I wonder what mistakes we are making now that we simply cannot see.

In Other News -- The search for a Jewish Homeland, the Stars and Stripes Forever and the Klondike gold rush.

Heavier-than-Air Flight Is Proven Impossible

People have been building flying machines ever since Leonardo Da
Vinci's helicopter leapt skyward, and plummeted earthward. Professor
Langley had charts and graphs proving that a 1 horsepower steam engine
strapped to a fuselage of his design could do it. He had several
small-scale models powered by rubber bands to demonstrate. Professor
Samuel Langley is the director of the Smithsonian Institution, and if he
can't get the job done, no one can. A few years ago, the government
funded his project to build a full-scale flying machine... presumably to
be used as a war machine... but he can't make it work. He is so
frustrated that he actually builds a full-scale model powered with a
rubber band! (It must have been a VERY BIG rubber band!) His most
spectacular failure is a contraption that looks like two butterflies
crashing head-on. After it sinks into the Potomac, the press ridicules
him mercilessly. Professor Langley gives up. God has reserved flight for
the birds. But we know what the problem is. The Professor needs a more
efficient engine... a gasoline-powered engine, but the best engines are
under development in Germany (if you want to call those explosions going
someplace to happen, "engines"). The Professor's dream has come too
soon. That is how two high school drop outs (Orville and Wilbur Wright)
will become the first to build a real flying machine. They are born into
a generation when all the pieces needed for success will come together.
[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

My Take by Alex ShruggedI
am reminded of that line from the movie "I, Robot" when Detective
Spooner, convinces Dr. Calvin to hop on the back of a motorcycle. Dr.
Calvin shouts, "Please tell me this doesn't run on gas! Gas explodes,
you know?" Yes, it does, and AC electricity is shockingly dangerous, but
we didn't worry overly much about bursting into flames, crashing into
the ground or electrocuting ourselves. The rule of the day was to seek
out fame and adventure. There was always danger wherever one went, but
to die trying to be the greatest, the first, the most... that was worth
an honorable death. There are still some who are willing to risk, but
the new generation has decided that herd safety is the better path. I
don't call people "sheep." Everyone provides for their safety in the
ways they think best, but when we fail to risk, we fail to learn. When I
entered college I barely knew how to turn on a computer. (It's that Big
Red Switch on the side. Right?) By the time I left college I could
build one from scratch. Could the coming generation do the same? They
don't have to, but what is the next adventure, the next horizon? Is the
coming generation willing to draw forth Excalibur from the stone?
Professor Langley tried and failed, yet he is still remembered kindly.

Food Storage: A Birdseye View

Clarence Frank Birdseye the 2nd is born in Brooklyn, New York this
year. That is his real name. As the story goes, an English page shot a
bird on the wing with an arrow right through its eye. The Queen
witnessed this marvel and named the young man "Birdseye" which became
the family name. There is no evidence to support this bit of hokum
WHATSOEVER, but the family is sticking to it. At ten years old Clarence
will trap muskrats and sell them to an aristocrat in England to earn
money to buy a shotgun. He will hunt and preserve his own food. While
ice-fishing he will conceive of the idea of flash-freezing food. But his
contributions to society will be greater than inventing a machine that
can flash freeze 800 pounds of peas in an hour. Quite honestly, people
didn't want to eat frozen foods because the food turned to mush when
defrosted and it tasted terrible. He invented an entire industry of
frozen foods. He held hundreds of patents on things like a modified
harpoon, an automatic fishing reel, the frosted light bulb, and the
infrared bulb that he will use for dehydrating foods.
[9][10]

My Take by Alex ShruggedClarence
Birdseye was an exemplary 19th century man. He was willing to take on
hardship, and make his world better no matter what it took. If something
had never been done before or if everyone said "We've always done it
this way", Clarence would find another way. It was his obsession. When
Birdseye died, Sarah Robbins guided her little lobster boat out of
Gloucester Harbor to where it meets the Atlantic. Clarence's wife,
Eleanor, and his son, Henry "Birdseed" Birdseye carried a ceramic urn
containing the ashes of Clarence Birdseye. The idea was to cast his
ashes onto the sea but to the shock and surprise of all, Henry chucked
his father's ashes, urn and all, off the bow of the boat. The urn
floated. Henry's sisters distracted their mother while he jabbed at the
urn with a boat hook. He finally broke it and the urn sank to the
bottom. [11]

Journey to the Center of the Earth... in a Balloon

The current belief is that the Earth is hollow with an opening at the
North Pole. This idea was made popular by Jules Verne in his novel
"Journey to the Center of the Earth." The idea has been kicking around
for a long time, but this is the age of heroes. In the modern day these
heroes would be certified as insane, but in 1896, they are just one more
exploration team seeking the North Pole for fame and glory. S.A. Andree
is a Swedish explorer with a grand idea. He will fly to the North Pole
in a balloon! OK. I know what you are thinking, but the answer is no. He
is not a moron. He is just overly-enthusiastic, and he knows all about
flying balloons. After all, he has been a passenger a balloon several
times. How hard could it be? When asked how he will control the
direction the balloon takes, he replies that he has worked out a system
of dragging weights across the ice. He figures that he will cross the
North Pole, drop a message buoy and keep on going. Maybe he will land in
Russia. As his balloon disappears over the horizon, his fellows wonder
if they will ever see the expedition again. [12]

My Take by Alex ShruggedThey
were seen again.... several times, in various places. It was like an
Elvis sighting. There were rumors they had walked into a Russia village
asking for supplies. One of the buoys from the expedition was found,
increasing the hope that they might still be alive, but off course.
Years passed. Finally, in 1930
a Norwegian sloop out sealing, finds S. A. Andree's body and that of
his fellow explorers... along with a diary and a camera. The film was
still usable. A picture shows a balloon on the ice, laying on its side
with the envelope partially deflated. The men of the expedition look on.
The photograph is misty and washed out. The men seem like ghosts which
is what they were. They just didn't know it yet. The balloon had been
hit by a windstorm. Andree's scheme of dragging weights across the ice
didn't work out. They were dragged hundreds of miles off course. Another
expedition passed within a few kilometers of them, but couldn't get
their attention. It is not clear what killed them in the end. They
survived on the provisions they had brought and bear meat. Andree's body
was brought back to Sweden to a hero's welcome. Yet in later years he
was criticized. From generation to generation what seems sensible at the
time seems crazy in the next. We look back and point out the errors.
Maybe we laugh, but I wonder. What obvious errors are we making right
now? In 100 years, will they laugh at us? I guarantee it. [13]

In Other News

The campaign to establish a Jewish Homeland begins. It is a secular movement begun by a Jewish journalist, Theodor Herzl. [14]

Phillip Sousa composes the Stars and Stripes Forever march. It will remain a popular patriotic march into the modern day.

The Klondike gold rush begins. If you bought
gold last year, your investment will not pay off until well over 100
years from now. Gold prices are going to drop like a stone. [14][15]